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Hi all, I recently bought a 1989 Brumby ute which is in almost mint condition but has a couple of minor things that concern me a little. First is a strange noise that can be heard in the higher rev range coming from engine bay/underneathe of the car which is only present while in FWD, as soon as you engage 4WD and rev the car there is no noise present. Secondly my car heats up close to 3/4 on the gauge before the thermofan kicks in, it never gets into the red which is why the previous owner didnt worry about it and since it only ever warms up to this level while stationary its not a major issue im just wondering what i can do to make it turn on sooner?

Not sure bout the noise without hearing it possible gearbox if in gear if not in gear could be something touching 4wd selection lever . Put a quality aftermarket gauge in to see whats going on see what your temperatures are. The factory thermo fan switch is set fairly high (around 95C) but as these vehicles are getting on a little in age so probably would not hurt to get cooling system checked by a radiator specialist and flushed.

I havent reved it while stationary and listened for that noise, the only tests i have done have been whilest driving. The radiator appears new and works fine as long as air is passing by the radiator, is it possible to get a switch that activates the thermofan at a lower temp? alternatively if i turn the AC on it activates the AC fan which cools the radiator very quickly but i dont want to have to drive around with the AC on while im in a line of traffic. I agree with you that at the cars age it probably shouldnt be getting so hot.

My 92 with the 4 speed box has a similar rattle noise I put down to being external of the box and may be the 4WD selctor rod vibrating on something. Yours same?

My fans switch on about 3mm above half way mark. I also hooked up a relay to earth the rad switch manually to use in traffic and big hill climbs to switch on before the temps even thinks about going above half. Both fans switched on first even on 40 deg C days up mountains did not go above half

I think you could be right with the selector rod vibrating on something, i will try and investigate that.

i might have to chuck in a manual switch, it seems to be the general consensus.

I also own an '89 Brumby which heats right up to 3/4 before the fan kicks in and brings it back slightly. From my observations it only happens in stop-start situations where you are slipping the clutch to take off. Once you get back to something like 60km/h mine will drop back below half almost straight away.

I don't worry about it as long as the temperature goes down when that fan kicks in (which it does).